Published at 14th of August 2024 7:35 am

Book 2 Chapter 49: We Recite this Prayer

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Dantes walked in with the rest of the crowd as they all shuffled in, blending into it naturally. There were a few temple guards at the door, but they were busier greeting people than they were looking out for any actual threats. The majority of people moved straight ahead into the main hall where worship took place, but Dantes saw a few people drift off to where the healers were to either beg for charity or pay them for some divine healing. There were few gods and goddesses that granted their followers that ability, so their services were always in high demand. It was almost always more sensible to try and work with an herbalist or alchemist to see if they could help you first, many men and women had died waiting for a priestess of the Goddess of the Healing touch to minister to them.

Dantes moved into the main chamber of the temple, looking up to admire the high ceilings and ornate carvings that surrounded him as he did so. Light drifted inside from the stained glass windows, covering everyone in a kind of rainbow light. Dantes moved down a long pew, making sure he was seated at the far end of it, closest to the wall to allow him easy movement. It wasn’t as if he was legally obligated to sit in the temple, but drawing a large amount of attention to himself by exiting from the middle of a pew before committing a murder wasn’t a great idea.

As he settled and watched everyone else find a seat, he turned his attention to the altar at which a Priest of the Many gods was standing with his hands folded behind his back. He was tall, and bald, but even from a distance Dantes could make out thick dark eyebrows that made his face very expressive. His height was difficult to determine, but he wore a simple black robe with a cloth wrap of white around his waist. The priests of the many were a rare breed, most preferred to worship a single god or a few of them, but they worshiped them all, the good and the bad. Rendhold was one of few places where they had a temple, its eclectic population needing something beyond small local temples for each deity.

Just before the priest began speaking Jacopo began crawling toward Dantes’s legs from within his jacket.

“I’ll search for Danglars myself.”

Dantes smiled.

“Want to find him on my behalf?”

“No, I just feel someone as fleshy as him likely tastes delicious.”

“I’m touched.”

Jacopo slipped to the bottom of the pew and started to slowly make his way to one of the side doors that led away from the main hall. He took extra care as he moved, frequently shifting into a roach to further reduce any suspicion or slide under doorways.

Dantes maintained his connection to him, doing his best to look pious as he searched for an enemy to murder.

The priest at the pulpit began to speak, his voice carrying by magic and acoustics throughout the entire hall. It sounded somehow as if he was speaking to everyone, but also Dantes alone, all at the same time.

“In the beginning there existed only the Father and the Mother.”

Ah, this old gem, thought Dantes.

“Two beings without beginning and without end. They floated through the aether that was the godplane, and enjoyed the infinite possibilities of nothingness and of one another. They built palaces of flame, light, darkness. They spun up skies of love and beauty and other things which to them are as malleable as clay is to us. Though the Mother was satisfied with what they had built, the Father’s appetite for creation was greater. He took a piece of the godplane, and on it he established something that had not existed before, rules. These rules keep us tethered to the ground, keep our thoughts within our heads, and make the walls around us solid. Once he established those rules, he began to build within them. He spilled the ocean within its confines, and then molded land within it creating the continents and islands on which we live. He watched, as hurricanes blew across it, volcanoes blasted fire along it, and enjoyed the marvels created in unexpected ways by the rules which he’d put in place.”

The man took a deep breath. Dantes found himself surprisingly engrossed by the sermon, he was a good speaker. He checked on Jacopo and found that he was searching through the priest quarters.

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“Eventually the Mother sought out the Father, having grown bored and lonely without him, and found the source of his absence. The Father did not hide it, and proudly showed off the beauty of his creation. The Mother was impressed, but found the land her lover had created felt empty. She looked at the rules that he had set and reached within the land to mold small pieces of it, pieces infinitesimally small even to us. Once those pieces existed, she breathed her love into them, and so created the first life beyond herself and her lover.”

“It wasn’t long before The Father noticed what she had done. Creatures began to swim in his oceans, and some even began to sprout on the land. He was fascinated by this creation, and showered his love in praise for what she had done. So taken was he, that he decided to attempt what she had done himself. He molded mountains into the shape of the creatures she had created, but they would not move. He tried to tether the winds together into beautiful living forms, but they wouldn’t take shape. He attempted to cool lava as it poured with sweat filled with his own power, but it only moved when he willed it to do so. He then tried to do exactly what she had done, but when he breathed into what he created, nothing happened. The Mother tried to explain what she had done to him, but no matter what he tried, it was beyond him.”

“The Father began to grow resentful of what the Mother had done, and he took to solitude in the godplane where his power was infinite and unrestricted. The Mother, in an attempt to comfort him, convinced him to try and create life together with her. They both returned to the mortal plane and laid with one another, and The Mother bore a son. He was a bright and warm creature, and he swiftly took a liking to the sky above the mortal plane, shining down on all of us as the sun.”

“Their son’s birth calmed the Father’s bitterness for a time, but eventually he found himself just as frustrated that he needed The Mother’s help to forge life, as he had been at his inability to create it. He tortured himself trying to find some way to create life from nothing as she could, but no matter what he tried he could not do it. Eventually, he came to a solution. If he could not create life from nothing, then he would use pieces of himself to do it. Forging a knife of aether, he carved from himself a piece of his flesh. He took that flesh and molded it, turning it into a life that would be more impressive than anything his love had ever made. When it was done, he placed it into the ocean and he swelled with pride as the first leviathan swam into the oceans, the mere act of his swimming creating tsunamis and storms that drowned the land.”

“The Mother was horrified to see what the Father had done to himself, and what his creation was doing to the rest of the mortal plane. Resolving herself to try and make the Father forget about trying to match her in this one place that she was clearly superior, she resolved to show that she could even make life in the same way he had. Carving a piece from herself she took a piece of the earth he had forged and mixed it together, creating a perfect and beautiful white sphere. She breathed life into it as well, and placed it in the sky with its brother, the Sun who quickly took to her and they began chasing each other and playing. The moon’s pale light calmed the leviathan the Father had created, and the seas too calmed allowing the life that the Mother had created to exist in peace.”

“The Father’s heart hardened at what she had done, and instead of ceasing to create life in his reckless and dangerous way, he only began to create more, carving godlings and monsters from himself. The Mother reacted in kind, forging new kinds of life in the world he had created, most of it small, but among them were beasts of great power and gods as well. Their bitterness turned to a contest, and that contest filled the mortal place with all of the life around us, creating the beautiful symmetry of chaos and order in which we all live today.”

“As the Mother created, she became more and more entwined with the life she’d grown, until all of it was connected to and through her, even those things that the Father created became connected to her. As the Father created, he lost more and more of himself until there was no piece of him left. With no more life himself, he became something that had never existed before. He became Death.”

The Priest let that hang in the air for a few moments before continuing, the crowd stayed silent, with many of their heads bowed.

“The Father and Mother realized how much their feud had cost on another, but they became so connected to the new world they created that they could no longer see one another. Now, it is up to their children to carry the messages that they want to send, through life, and into death. Those most powerful of the Mother and Father’s children often mimic them, trying to carve life from themselves and mold it into new gods, men, and beasts. When they do so too recklessly, and give too much of themselves, their bodies rot beneath the mortal plane as the hells, where beings whose souls no god would claim go to suffer torment at the hands of demons who spring up from the deaths of gods, for no god can truly die. Only the father was able to avoid this fate.”

The priest raised his hands up into the air. “We recite this prayer to honor the Father, the Mother and all of their children-”

“Dantes, interrupted Jacopo as the rest of the temple began to recite the prayer after the priest. “I think I’ve found him.”

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